India's aviation regulator DGCA on Thursday lifted the ban on Boeing 737 Max planes' commercial flight operations after almost two-and-half years. On March 13, 2019, all Boeing 737 Max planes were grounded in India by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max plane on March 10 near Addis Ababa which had left 157 people, including four Indians, dead. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has been modifying the 737 Max plane since March 2019 so that various countries' regulators, including the DGCA, permit its passenger flight operations again.
Needed: Cabin Crew (Technical) and Flight Safety Instructor for Air Deccan.
A UN team had visited the Patna airport and expressed concerns.
Saturday's mid-air engine failure on Indigo flight prompts scrutiny.
The Kalrock-Jalan consortium - new owners of Jet Airways - has got an assurance from around 30 airports that if the airline restarts operations, 170 pairs of slots can be made available. However, whether those slots will be according to the airline's demand will depend on the order of the insolvency court, which is slated to come next week. Sources said the new management feels it is extremely important that some of those slots are restored or else its business plan of operating Jet as a premium carrier will not be viable.
Air Passengers Association of India on Thursday expressed concern over the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's move to "relax" the annual flying hours limit from the present 1000 hours to 1200 hours.
Use cases for drones are, however, immense - industrial inspections, geospatial surveys, agricultural surveys, and general surveillance and security.
Under the guidelines, pilots have less time to fly and airlines say they will have to recruit 20 to 25 per cent more pilots, at a time when there is a shortage of pilots across the globe. The DGCA has included non-flying hours within an overall annual duty cap of 1,600 hours per pilot, within which the number of flying hours has been capped at 1,000 hours a year.
Ending the monopoly of government-owned airlines to fly abroad, the DGCA has initiated the process of allowing private carriers to launch overseas services by asking them to file their schedules and fares for operating to Colombo.
Aviation watchdog DGCA will conduct a special audit of grounded airline Go First's facilities in the national capital and Mumbai from July 4 to 6 before approving the revival plan for resumption of flights, according to a senior official. Cash-strapped Go First stopped flying on May 3 and is undergoing a voluntary insolvency resolution process. Meanwhile, a senior executive at the airline expressed hope of resuming ticket sales -- which was paused by DGCA following the grounding of the carrier -- from July 7 or July 8 and subsequent relaunch of the operations from middle of next month.
A senior DGCA official said that the flight has been grounded and a detailed probe has been ordered into the matter. All the passengers are safe.
The watchdog has also asked the airlines to ensure various requirements are complied with by engineering and maintenance personnel with respect to 737 MAX planes.
Airline stocks have been soaring following a steep decline in crude oil prices and sustained passenger traffic. Analysts have particularly turned bullish on the stocks of InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet. On December 20, shares of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) hit a record high of Rs 3,009 on the BSE, having surged 43.24 per cent year-to-date (YTD).
The incident took place on August 30 when Air India flight AI 102 was on its way to New Delhi from New York.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the aircraft had crashed into the mountains after it swerved to the right, instead of turning to the left due to inclement weather.
An Air India pilots' grouping has raised fatigue concerns in the wake of flight crew rosters generated using a new rostering tool, saying that extended waiting periods between duty time will jeopardise crew alertness and performance. "Extended waiting periods, occurring before active flight duties, run counter to enhancing crew readiness and, in fact, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue over time," the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has said. In a letter to Air India head of safety Henry Donohoe last week, IPG said it has been recently observed that the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency and economic gains has led to an unintended overshadowing of the primary intent behind Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations.
The whereabouts of Mahinda Rajapaksa is being speculated since his resignation on Monday.
The proposal to issue new rules has come just six days after the DGCA said it has imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on IndiGo airline for denying boarding to a specially abled child at Ranchi airport on May 7.
The two airlines are likely to begin their operations later this month after the DGCA approves their schedule for flight operations.
The directives will apply to both passenger and cargo planes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Wednesday.
The airspace above the prime minister's residence at Race Course road in Delhi is a 'no fly zone'.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, in-flight meal service was not permitted on domestic flights since their resumption on May 25. On international flights, only pre-packed cold meals and snacks were being served depending on the flight duration since May this year.
Banerjee also stated that the plane did not fall into any air pocket, rebuffing reports that had claimed otherwise.
The G20 leaders will deliberate on pressing global issues at the grouping's annual summit here on September 9 and 10. India is hosting the summit in its capacity as the current G20 chair.
The regulator is now planning to bring in other workers in the aviation ecosystem under the purview of the breath-analyser test. It will include air traffic control officers (ATCOs), ground-handling personnel, flight despatchers, aerodrome operation personnel and engineers.
None of the 55 passengers or five crew members was injured, they said, adding the DGCA has started an investigation.
"The Indian government approached asking us to open the airspace. We conveyed our concerns that first India must withdraw its fighter planes placed forward," Nusrat told the committee.
DGCA said there are 13 aircraft in the airline's fleet in which both the PW engines have been used for more than 3,000 hours.
Till now, aircraft that are more than 15 years old were not allowed to be imported
Holding that Air India's conduct appeared to be 'unprofessional', aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday issued notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, asking why action should not be taken against them for 'dereliction' of duty while handling the November 26 'urination' incident.
In another tweet, Gandhi also expressed concern over frequent emergency landings of flights due to one snag or another at a time when domestic air fares have almost doubled.
This instruction is a temporary measure and shall be in force till March 31 and will be reviewed subsequently.
The airline filed a police complaint against the woman, who was travelling in business class.
"The AI865 flight on Thursday got delayed as it developed a technical snag. It had to return to the bay. Passengers started knocking on the cockpit door, asking and taunting the pilots to come out," said an airline official. "One male passenger even said that he will break open the cockpit door if the pilots didn't come out," the official said, adding the situation inside the plane "went from bad to worse".
Indian aviation regulator DGCA has barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from operating the Boeing 737 Max aircraft after finding them not properly trained. "For the moment, we have barred these pilots from flying the Max and they have to retrain successfully for flying the aircraft," DGCA chief Arun Kumar said in a statement. He also said that the regulator will take "strict action against those found responsible for the lapse."
